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Third, it sets out to explore the correlation between students’ CTD and WA by adopting Pearson Correlation Analysis, and Step-wise Multiple Linear Regression Analysis will be conducted if high correlation has been detected. Taking the senior high students rather than college students majoring in English as the subject, this study is going to be conducive to bridging the gap existing in the popularity of CTD and scarcity of study related to CTD and writing in senior high schools. 

Finally, by employing a mixed method, this research aims at expanding more in-depth insights towards the students’ CTD and WA by elaborating the quantitative data and qualitative evidence. With data collected and reasons tracked, some pedagogical implications can be drawn for educational authorities and teachers accordingly, and the result is going to enrich the empirical findings to some extent. 

Chapter Two   Literature Review

2.1 Definitions on Key Terms

Key conceptions should be clarified before envisaging the specific process of the study, and CTD as well as connections of CTD and writing are therefore firstly explained in this section. 

2.1.1 Critical Thinking Disposition

As an integral part of CT, CTD could not be clearly discussed and defined without mentioning CT. CT was not a recent term since Socrates highly stressed its significance in his “Dialectical Method” two thousand years ago. However, there was still no one authoritative explanation to the term. 

The father of modern CT, Dewey described it as: “active, persistent, and careful consideration of a belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds which support it and the further conclusions to which it tends” (cited in Hashemi & Ghanizadeh, 2012). It was also regarded as “reasonable, reflective thinking that is focused on deciding what to believe or do” (Ennis, 1987). Earlier definitions mainly emphasized on the process and characteristic of thinking itself, and CT was more likely to be regarded as a kind of thinking skill. Nevertheless, McPeck (1981) defined CT as “the propensity and skill to engage in an activity with reflective skepticism”. Similarly, Fasko (2003) proposed that CT should be “the propensity and skills to engage in activity and ‘mental activity’ with reflective skepticism focused on deciding what to believe or do...”. A dimension of propensity gradually appeared in more definitions afterwards. 

2.2 Theoretical Basis of the Research

In this section, constructivist view of teaching and Swain’s Output Hypothesis are introduced as theoretical foundation of this paper. 

2.2.1 Constructivist View of Teaching

Dewey (1997) held that constructivist teaching was based on a type of learning which occured through learners’ active involvement in construction of knowledge and meaning. The “active involvement” showcased the “thinking” process. In another statement, constructivist teaching was regarded as an approach to probe for children’s level of understanding and to show that understanding could increase high-level thinking ability (Mvududu & Thiel-Burgess, 2012). The goal of teaching was to develop students’ thinking ability, specifically, to cultivate learners’ inventive, creative and critical thinking, accor本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。